Ambiguity and Gas

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

"That boy... defeats our dumb attempts to enact closure every time.
Is it a deep and meaningful reference to Wittgenstein, is it
Weissmann's paranoia, are the sferics really telling Mondaugen something,
is it another Pynchon metaphor for the whole reading process mocking
our own search for certainties and origins?
 
`Is the baby smiling or is it just gas?  Which do you want it to be?'"
 
In regard to V., I think you're right, but that phrase from GR has
to be taken in context.  The baby Jesus is looking at the new Magi--
bearing gifts of death-technology.  To choose whether the baby is
smiling or has gas is thus to make a distinctly *political and
ethcial* choice!

Don Larsson
Mankato State U (MN)